Impacted Crop, Work in Progress

[ludmilla1]

Update: She's pooping a lot, and her crop is a lot easier to massage. The sediment is a lot more loose. It's still oversized, but I thiiiiiink it's getting better!

Ive read not to add any food until the crop is empty. I believe i made that mistake with my little chick. Her crop was almost empty, and i gave her egg yolk. Next time i massaged her crop she vomited the egg yolk. Her crop never emptied and i believe she then developed pendulum crop. She didnt make it. I feel like the egg yolk and little bit of crumble I added for nutrition just made things worse.

 

[Mother Clucker Connie]

Nice job curing your hen! My girl, Big Red, has had an impaction for many weeks and was doing a funny dance for a month before we knew what it was impacted crop so we had not crated her or limited her food. We've been massaging to no avail but didnt know that we had to limit her food. She's skinny but will eat as much as ever. When she developed sour crop, we took to forums to learn more and I believe we've now rid her of the yeast. Her impaction is maybe a little bigger than a golf ball and feels like a ball of hard crumble. Your post gives me hope that if we stay diligent, we might just beat this thing. Is your girl still doing well?

 

[BanoOmg]

My red is all better now. Diligence is key! Also, I recommend to get or make a crop bra. Things started to improve shortly after I put hers on.

Good luck to you!

 

[BanoOmg]

Update: She has a fat, full crop again

This time it's mostly water, a little bit of grit/shells, and some flaps of something. I'm assuming it's the rind of a patty squash I gave them a couple days ago. Idk how she got pieces that big through her beak.

I've been massaging her crop every couple hours today, and keeping her away from food again. I'm trying to break up the pieces I feel, but it's hard to move it in a way where I can fold and crush it without feeling like I'm also damaging the lining of her crop. I've squished most of the softer bits down, but these things I'm assuming are the squash rind aren't breaking down yet.

Poo pic for posterity:

 

[BanoOmg]

Final update: She died.

I cut her open to see what was blocking her up. I found no sign of what I thought I'd felt inside her crop. There was straw and shavings in her crop, some oyster shells, spinach, raisins, and scratch grains. Nothing that I found was blocking her up crop-side.

Her gizzard was huge, and stuffed with what looked like really fine-grain, almost powder-fine sand. There were oyster shells and some coarser grit too, but a lot of the fine stuff. I haven't looked into what a healthy gizzard should look like yet, but I wanted to get this out while it's still fresh in my mind. I did not take any pictures.

I also checked her vent-side. I found no traces of egg shell, but there was what looked like cooked egg yolk all throughout. I guess I also need to look more into what it means to be egg bound.

This totally sucks. She was the first hen in this flock to get a name, and I grow very attached to my pets.

Rest in peace, Hot Mama Jamz.

 

[Dephora]

I have had a good ammount of chickens who get impacted crops and sour crops. In my experiene the ones that get it over and over tend to be fighting off something else and the crop is just the secondary symptom. Sounds like your girl had an infection of some kind maybe salpingitis or lash eggs. Very hard to treat for these things when the only symptoms you are getting is crop issues. Usually pooping what looks like scrambled eggs is a good indicator, but it sounds like the material never made it outside. Sorry for your loss.